32 Teams/32 Days: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Your Super Bowl LV Champions!

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Your Super Bowl LV Champions

Division: NFC South

Record: 11-5 (2nd in the Division). Super Bowl Champions

Intro: Jason Licht, I’m a Dumbass

Well, let’s get one thing off the chest here. I’ve now been doing these writeups for 6 or 7 years, and I have had one consistent underlying theme throughout: shitting on Jason Licht. Here’s some quotes for you:

2017:

• “This is Jason Licht’s modus operandi. This is why this last season, we weren’t who we thought we were, and we Licht us off the hook”

• “Jason Licht a Horrible General Manager and I Can’t be Convinced Otherwise at this Point. Brace Yourselves for the Coming Offseason”

2018:

• “You can fire Lovie Smith. You can fire Dirk Koetter. You can hire Bruce Arians. None of this will have any impact on the team so long as Jason Licht is the General Manager of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers”

• “Our fans are really hopeful about the Arians signing. It’s adorable. It’s like the equivalent of your dad buying you a new Ferrari. It’s a beautiful car, but you get in and realize that Vince Young is behind the wheel with Princess Diana in the passenger seat. No matter how nice the car is, as long as Vince Young is driving and Princess Diana’s there too, that beautiful car is going to blow up in a drunken explosion (and you can’t take a fucking Uber because you’re banned from it for grabbing driver crotch). Jason Licht is Vince Young, the fans are Princess Diana, and Bruce Arians is the Ferrari being driven by a loon.”

So, Jason Licht, even though you don’t read Reddit comments (I think?) as one of your most vocal critics on here for the last 5+ years, let the world know: I am a dumbass, and you are a Tampa demigod. In you I trust. I will now commit seppuku with a frisbee.

A Personal Super Bowl Story

So we got a Super Bowl win. It’s amazing. I cried when it happened. But this Super Bowl has a very special meaning and will for me for life. Why? Because my first child was born that day. A story:

If you re-read my pre-season predictions, I believed we’d go 10-6 and lose to the Saints in the Divisional Round. So when we got past them, that was the moment I said: “hey maybe we are going to go all the way and win the Super Bowl!”

And then, we beat the Packers in Lambeau, pulling another upset, which included my absolute favorite Buccaneer play since Ronde’s pick six: the Brady dime to Scotty Miller to end the half.

My child was originally due February 24. But for some reason, the moment that TD happened, I turned to my wife and said: “I am firmly convinced this baby is going to come two weeks early the night of the Super Bowl. Because God Glennon is cruel.”

So we wait two weeks, and game day finally comes. I wake up, make us some coffee. Wife comes downstairs.

“I’m definitely starting to feel it.”

“Feel what?”

“I think this baby is coming.”

“Oh…fuck.”

Day goes on. She’s spending most of the time pacing around the house uncomfortably. Kickoff nears. I turn to her and say (and I really meant this): “Listen, if we have to go to the hospital and we miss the game, so be it. Your health and the baby’s health is more important.”

Like a total champ, she replied: “If it comes to that, we’ll put the game on in the delivery room.”

Game starts. Buccaneers are off to the races. Bucs start the game off 21-6. At the half, my wife is visibly uncomfortable.

“Do we need to go to the hospital? Seriously. It’s okay to miss the rest of the game to go to the hospital.”

“Absofuckinglutely not. We are watching the Bucs all the way through to the end.”

Again, champ. We watch the Weeknd halftime show, and my wife quips: “watching that was more painful than labor will be.”

We watched the rest of the game. My wife says she barely remembers it. The first watch, it was kind of a blur for me too.

We drive to the hospital, but I’m still in such disbelief and a weird mental state I initially drive to the wrong hospital (which she gives me shit for to this day).

OBGYN takes one gander: “oh yup. This baby is coming.”

And that she did. At 11:58 PM in a buzzer beater for the next day, Tom Brady delivered a Lombardi, and then my wife delivered our first baby.

So every time I look at my daughter, I will always be reminded of the amazing Super Bowl victory of that day—and remember that my wife is a fucking champ too.

2020 Key Statistics: or What Happens When You Replace a Crab Stealing Sexual Predator with the GOAT

Category	2019 Ranking	2020 Ranking	Δ
DVOA Offense	21st	3rd	+18
Total Offense	6,366 Yards	6,145 Yards	-221
Total Passing Yards	4,845 Yards	4,626 Yards	-219
Total Rushing Yards	1,521 Yards	1,519 Yards	-2
DVOA Defense	5th	2nd	+3
Total Defense Allowed	5,503	5,235	+268
Total Passing Yards Allowed	4,322 Yards	3,945 Yards	+377
Total Rushing Yards Allowed	1,181 Yards	1,289 Yards	-108
Total Sacks	47.0	48.0	+1.0
Turnover/Takeaway Differential	-13	+8	+21
Penalty Flags	134	100	-34
Player Arrests	0	1	+1

Top Stories of the 2020 Season

Tom Brady signs with the Bucs. Casually Wins a Super Bowl: After five years of Jameis Winston’s stupidity, memes, and turnovers, opportunity fell into the Bucs lap in the form of Tom Brady becoming a free agent. I’ll admit, when we signed Brady, I was excited, but I didn’t expect him to be an immediate panacea for the Bucs’ woes.

Take a look at the delta in the above table. The biggest difference you’ll see between Jameis and Brady is a +21 in turnover/takeaway differential,

The biggest problem with Winston was clustered turnovers and constantly putting his defense in a position where they were forced to clean up Winston’s mess. Take a look at the turnover stats below for Winston for his final year in Tampa:

• Games with 0 turnovers: 2
• Games with 1 turnover: 5
• Games with 2 turnovers: 3
• Games with 3+ turnovers: 6

Now compare that to Brady’s first year:

• Games with 0 turnovers: 8
• Games with 1 turnover: 3
• Games with 2 turnovers: 4
• Games with 3+ turnovers: 1 But then, there was playoff Brady. And that was magical. On paper, his 58.7% completion percentage isn’t stellar for this playoff run. But he showed up in the perfect moments, with plays like his dime to Scotty Miller to end the half against Green Bay, or his 72.4% Super Bowl passing Super Bowl performance with 3 TD’s and 0 turnovers that won him MVP. In one year, I was awestruck by Brady’s greatness. Objectively, he was the GOAT a long time ago. He’s now creating an untouchable Madden legacy score that isn’t ever going to get surpassed unless you play with your created character on “Rookie” difficult settings and turn the sliders down to 0.

Vincent Jackson Passes Away: This one hurt. A lot. On Monday, February 15, Vincent Jackson was found dead in a Hollywood Suites hotel room at the age of 38. While no cause of death has been confirmed, his family noted that he had suffered from concussions and alcoholism.

VJax meant so much to the Tampa community. Fans who met him had nothing but wonderful anecdotes about his kindness and humility. Search YouTube, and you’ll find clips like this one where kids interview him, and he goes out of his way to answer their questions thoroughly and with patience in genuine enjoyment of their company.

He was a Salute to Service award winner for his philanthropic efforts with the armed forces. He was the team’s Walther Payton Man of the Year nominee multiple times.

And he was a reminder of how horrible this sport we love is. I often wonder—with guys like Kuechly, Jay Cutler, or Matt Schaub (guys who suffered numerous documented concussions that come to mind), what happens to them when they hang up the pads for good?

Junior Seau and Jim Plunkett exuded an aura of positivity and warmth on camera, but inside, were fighting the demons of CTE that haunted them long after their careers ended.

NFL players are the closest things to real life superheroes we have, but the veneer of invincibility quickly vanishes when retirement happens. And I fucking hate that.

RIP to VJax.

Vita Vea Goes to IR. Vita Vea Returns Deus Ex Machina: Vita Vea may not be the best player on the Bucs defense (that’s Lavonte), but he’s certainly the most irreplaceable. 350 pound 0-techs with the strength of 10 oxen and the speed of a dwarf (dwarves are very fast over short distances, look it up) don’t grow on trees. So when Vea went down against the Bears with a fractured ankle in October, my doubts crept in about how far this team could go without him.

Before Vea’s injury, no team had run for more than 87 yards on the Bucs. After he went down, teams surpassed that 87 yard total in 6 of the remaining 11 regular season games.

And then, a miracle: Vita Vea healed and came back in time for the Conference Championship against Green Bay, and he was immediately back to his hole plugging dominance. A two week break before the Super Bowl, and he was back to 100%. Vea was a violent hippo in the Super Bowl, and his presence collapsed the pocket on every play and allowed Sack Ferret and JPP to feast. It was a miracle to put a bow on the package, and we were glad to see the big man back on the field at the right time.

Devin White Turns into a Super Saiyan 3: If you look solely at his 2nd team All-Pro and the stats on the box score, you would think Devin White was already an elite tier Mike. 140 tackles, 9.0 sacks? That’s crazy, right? Yes, but… Devin White was actually pretty up and down during the regular season. Missed tackles at times, poor play recognition, and while dropping back into coverage, he allowed a near 100% completion percentage. It was kind of all over the place. But there was no “all over the place” in the playoffs. White went ballistic. After missing the wildcard round against Washington from being on the Covid-19 list, White returned for the final three games.

His numbers in that stretch: 27 tackles (including 3 TFL), 2 INT’s (including 1 in the Super Bowl), 2 PD’s, 2 FR’s, and he even looked good in pass coverage!

Devin White elevated his game to new levels in the playoffs. I’ll admit, it was probably a stretch to predict he’d win DPOY in year two, but he’s looking damn good now.

The Bucs Get New Uniforms: Remember when Netflix rebranded their streaming services to Quickster, and everyone was like: “dafuq are you doing?” Or when New Coke came out and quickly died? Or when the NBA rolled out the new composite leather ball and the players revolted? The feeling was similar when the Bucs rolled out their new uniforms in 2014, which I often described as the outcome of when you have a cat eat an alarm clock, 3-week old Chinese food, and curdled milk and see what comes out on the other end. Seriously, who thought they were a good idea?

So when the Bucs finally revealed the new uniforms for the 2020 season, there was a collective sigh of relief: we were going back to a variation of our middle-era jerseys, and fans could once again go out in public without feeling embarrassed to wear them. The year the Bucs rolled out the 2014 jerseys, we went 2-14. The year we rolled out the new jerseys, we win a Super Bowl. Coincidence? I think not.

Carlton Davis has his Myers Leonard Moment on Twitter: Never mind, let’s not talk about this. Anyhow, here’s Wonderwall.

Free Agency – Select Analysis of Key Free Agents on the Docket

Player	Status	Analysis
Sack Ferrett (Edge)	Re-signed for 4 years, $68M with $34.25M guaranteed	Bringing back Sack Ferret was an absolute must, and Licht and Greenberg managed to do it at a bargain. In free agency, Ferret could have commanded a deal that put him in line with the top OLB’s in the league, but stuck around in Tampa for a pay cut (granted, it’s still a handsome salary). He’s obviously a centerpiece of our defense, and his 27.5 sacks in two seasons made him a commodity we couldn’t lose. It’s a great deal.
Chris Godwin (WR)	Franchise Tagged at 1 year, $16M fully guaranteed	Perhaps one of the best bargain finds of the Licht era, Godwin was a 3rd round pick turned All-Pro in 2019. A concussion and other injuries slowed Godwin a bit from last season, but make no mistake, he’s a top tier WR, one of the league’s best blockers, and a guy who hasn’t neared his prime yet. Slated to become a UFA, the Bucs put the franchise tag on Godwin in an effort to “keep the gang together” for one more year. The move made sense in the short-term, but the Bucs will have to ask: is it worth paying two WR’s among tops in the league? I can’t see Godwin staying in Tampa beyond this season, and he’s likely to make mega-bank when he becomes a UFA again in 2022. We’re happy to keep him around for now. He’s a fan favorite.
Ryan Succop (K)	Re-signed for 3 years, $12M with $6.25M guaranteed:	Do you remember Roberto Aguayo, Chandler Catanzaro, Matt Gay, Mike Nugent, Kyle Brindza, Nick Folk, and every other garbage kicker the Bucs have had since Matt Bryant? Then surely you understand why re-signing the most accurate kicker in Bucs history was a top priority. And if push comes to shove, we can always draft a Kicker in Round 1. For the memes.
Ndamukong “Big Girl” Suh	Re-signed for 1 year, $9M fully guaranteed.	Suh has been a refreshing addition to Tampa in the two seasons he’s spent with us. A locker room leader and a defensive tone setter, he continues to play at a high level at 34 years old. Suh is on the precipice of a Hall of Fame selection, probably 2nd this decade in production only behind the Donald. With a ring, 5 Pro Bowl selections, and 5 All-Pro selections, another ring on his belt would likely cement his status as a future Hall of Famer. It’s great to have America’s favorite donkey kicking genital stomper back in Tampa.
Rob Gronkowski (TE)	Re-signed for 1 year, $8M	Everyone knew Gronk wasn’t going anywhere. He’s the closest thing to a human version of a Golden Retriever there is, and Brady pretty much owns him at this point. Though Gronk has clearly lost a step, Gronk on the decline is still better than about 90% of the league’s TE’s, and he remains Brady’s favorite security blanket. The only issue I have with the deal is that the Bucs now have more than $20M devoted to TE in 2021. With narrow cap space, remaining free agents to sign, and a rookie salary pool to pay, the Bucs must evaluate OJ Howard and/or Cameron Brate’s futures in Tampa, both of whom can be cut with 0 dead cap implications.
Lombardi Lenny	Re-signed for 1 year, $3.25M, Fully Guaranteed	Fournette was kind of streaky with his performances, but showed up at the right times and was a wonderful complementary back with Ronald Jones. His playoff performance was especially inspired—in four games, he averaged 112 yards from scrimmage and a TD. Fournette returned to Tampa after testing the market, only to find that there weren’t teams willing to shell out big money to RB’s. Fournette has always had a reputation of being a guy with a mercurial personality, but he seems to have responded to Arians and Brady’s leadership. His return is vital to the Bucs, and it comes for pennies on the dollar.
Antonio Brown (WR)	UFA - Unsigned	And speaking of mercurial personalities, Antonio Brown remains the last major unsigned Bucs free agent. Licht’s patience with re-signing Antonio Brown is going a long way, because it turns out the market for a serial locker room head case with a pending criminal trial isn’t vast. Who woulda thought? Brown appeared in 8 games for Tampa after serving an 8-game suspension for “all of the above,” and managed a season in Tampa without incident both on and off the field. He averaged a casual 6 receptions for 60 yards per game—modest production for a guy splitting reps with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. An upcoming criminal trial this year may put his future in Tampa (and perhaps the NFL in doubt). Realistically, we shouldn’t try to sign MBC for more than the league minimum again.
Blaine Gabbert & Ryan Griffin	UFA - Unsigned	I’m gonna group these two together, because currently, outside of Tom Brady, we have no QB’s on our roster. Arians has leaned on Gabbert as a backup going back to his days in AZ and even said with a straight face that Gabbert could supplant Brady down the road. Okay, Bruce. And then, there’s Ryan Griffin. God bless him. He’s managed to survive across three coaching regimes (Lovie, Koetter, Arians) as a QB3. Griffin never elevated to QB2, and at 31 years old, you have to wonder if he’s really worth it anymore. I think we’ll wind up finding away to bring back the Blaine-Train, but Griffin may have seen the end of his career. One way or another, QB2 is probably the Bucs’ #1 need right now.

2020 Draft Outlook

Round/Pick	Player	Analysis
Round 1, #13 Overall	Tristan Wirfs (RT - Iowa)	What I said when we made the pick: “There’s no denying that Wirfs’ athletic ability is deity level batshit…But then you had cases of sheer lack of awareness on blitzes and also stunts that showed deep areas of weakness for Wirfs. One way or another, this was a necessary pick, and even if he doesn’t pan out at RT, Wirfs’ athleticism and gifted abilities in the run game will make him a long-term key part of the Bucs and a potential Guard candidate.” What I say now: GUARD CANDIDATE? LMAO! I had a lukewarm reaction to the Wirfs pick, and what a dumbass I am for that. Wirfs, in my opinion, had one of the cleanest rookie seasons I’ve ever seen from a RT. He shut down Bosa, Cameron Jordan x2, only had 4 penalties his whole rookie year, and according to PFF, he allowed only one single sack as a rookie—against Khalil Mack. Pop on his tape and you’ll see a guy with the hand technique of an Aikido Master. His ceiling is Hall of Fame levels high. Outlook: Elite Potential. Kid is absolutely absurd.
Round 2, #45 Overall	Antoine Winfield Jr. (S - Minnesota)	What I said when we made the pick: “While Winfield is of course a safety, the very first thing that stood out to me watching his tape was his pass rush ability…The second thing that stood out was his nose for the ball, particularly in clutch situations…Winfield was my favorite pick of the Buccaneers draft class, and what he lacks in size he makes up for in speed and an excellent nose for the ball.” What I say now: We couldn’t have asked for more. He had a fantastic rookie season, and it turns out my love of his pass rush was warranted. He had 3.0 sacks, and PFF credited him with 9 pressures. His playoff performances were transcendent, and he’s such a badass he coopted Tyreek Hill’s peace sign. Sorry Reek, but it’s ours now. Outlook: Extremely Positive
Round 3, #76 Overall	Ke’Shawn Vaughn (RB - Vanderbilt)	What I said when we made the pick: “Vaughn’s biggest strengths to me showed up on tape with designed outside runs. Between the tackles, he showed little elusiveness…Vaughn crosses me as a valuable utility player who may get looks as a feature back should RoJo continue to struggle. The value was there with his 3rd round selection, but expectations for his upside should be kept in check.” What I say now: Vaughn got 26 carries as a rookie, so he wasn’t on the field much. He probably would have been if not for the Fournette signing. Really hard to make any judgement on him one way or another, but right now, he’s just another RB on the roster. Outlook: Neutral.
Round 5, #161 Overall	Tyler Johnson (WR - Minnesota)	What I said when we made the pick: “For a guy who stands at a mere 6’1 and is expected to play slot receiver, his speed and separation stand out as glaring weaknesses on tape. What I do like however, is his footwork coming off the line…Tyler Johnson, I think, will be a reserve WR, which is exactly what you want from a 5th round pick. But I don’t see him as the massive steal many other fans did.” What I say now: It was going to be hard for Tyler Johnson to justify snaps with Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, MBC, and Scotty Miller on the roster. He got 12 receptions for 169 yards, but his circus grab against New Orleans was one for the ages. Outlook: Neutral/Trending Positive
Round 6, #194 Overall	Khalil Davis (DT – Nebraska)	What I said when we made the pick: “Not particularly explosive with a slow first step, and there were numerous occasions when he did penetrate the backfield but had terrible angles on the RB... Did not see anything that made me say: “this guy’s going to make our final roster.”” What I say now: He made the roster, and got 57 snaps as a rookie. Not a lot to say about him. He’s just a body for now. Outlook: Negative

Top Needs Entering the Draft

1. QB- Now here’s a guy with an unpopular opinion. But it turns out, Tom Brady is really, really old. He’s still playing at an elite level, but as we’ve seen with Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, and Ben Roethlisberger, geriatric QB’s play well until the moment they don’t. As I write this, we have no QB2 on our roster, so it’s a glaring hole both from a depth and succession perspective. Suppose Jason Licht takes a QB with the 32nd overall pick (he likely won’t). It serves three purposes: an insurance policy, a successor whom Arians can groom before he retires, and potential trade bait down the road if and when Brady declines or hangs up the pads for good (aka pulling a Jimmy G). Possible Solutions: Kyle Trask, Davis Mills
2. Edge- There is Sack Ferret and then there is Jason Pierre-Paul (who’s on the final year of his deal and getting up there in years). Outside of that, the depth is narrow. There are a good number of Edge rushers who could be available when the Buccaneers pick 32nd. Most intriguing of all is Miami’s Jaelan Phillips, who outside of injuries at one point quit football. But watching his tape, he is an absolute freak of nature who is your highest boom/bust reward potential. Is it bad to say that his tape reminds me a little bit of Aaron Maybin? Possible Solutions: Jaelan Philips, Jayson Oweh, Gregory Rousseau
3. CB- CB is an area where the Buccaneers have the opposite issue compared to Edge: a respectable amount of depth, but areas that could use upgrades. Carlton Davis has established himself as a Tier II level CB, but the streakiness of Jamel Dean and Sean Murphy-Bunting leave something to be desired. This is a deep class at CB, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to fill our roster with more quality to slow down the Julios and Michael Thomases of the world. Possible Solutions: Greg Newsome II, Asante Samuel Jr.
4. C- Center isn’t an area we should think about using our 1st round pick, but Ryan Jensen is entering the final year of his deal, and with AQ Shipley’s unfortunate career ending injury this year, there is no depth there (Lord, please don’t flirt with putting Marpet back at Center). This is an area of need we can look at in Round 3. Possible Solutions: Creed Humphrey, Landon Dickerson
5. DI- We’ve now signed Suh to three consecutive 1-year deals. He’s 34. And Khalil Davis may not be more than a depth guy. Vea is firmly entrenched as a 0-tech, but the Bucs could use another under tackle. This is a pretty narrow class with DI, but if Christian Barmore is somehow sitting on the board at 32, he may be the BPA at that point. Possible Solutions: Osa Odighizuwa

Closing Thoughts: It’s Lonely at the Top, But the Bottom is Never Far Away

I can still remember that feeling when we won Super Bowl XXXVII: pure, unadulterated euphoria, and damn-near perfect confidence that that team would repeat. After all, we were able to bring back the core that brought us there, including Brad Johnson, John Lynch, Ronde Barber, Warren Sapp, Shelton Quarles, and Simeon Rice. But those Bucs proved that the mentality needed to stay on top is fragile. After starting 2-1, a certain legendary Peyton Manning comeback occurred on Monday Night Football, and the Bucs had a meltdown, only to finish 7-9.

The 2020 Buccaneers aren’t the 2002 team though. There’s a few big differences, primarily in the form of the most sociopathic, hyper-competitive player to ever touch a Football. The last time a team repeated was in 2003-2004, by none other than Tom Brady. It almost happened in 2014, but Malcom Butler said “not today.” One thing’s for sure: this is easily the most fun we’ve had watching this team in years. Of course, water is wet. With a draft ahead, the Buccaneers have an opportunity to fill depth, upgrade a few key positions, and maybe even trade down to accrue future draft capital.

Shoutouts

A shoutout to my fellow mods on r/NFL. We spend our lives on Reddit voluntarily sewn to the middle of the human centipede, but you make it fun.

Shoutout to the r/Buccaneers mods. We now have a rule that says you can't become an r/Buccaneers mod without getting banned from r/NFL or r/Buccaneers at some point. We bad boys.

And most of all, shoutout to the fans of r/Buccaneers who were subbed there prior to 2019. We saw this team through hell. It was brutal to watch Raheem Morris's "youngry" days, Schiano "toes on the line" and the fall of Josh Freeman, Lovie "I scored enough points" Smith, and Dirk Koetter being Dirk Koetter. But we kept the faith, we never gave up on this team, and now we reap the rewards with a Super Bowl win. You guys are the best. Except the bandwagoners. Fuck them. You suck.

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